This invention relates primarily to the field of kitchen utensils, in general, and in particular to devices for loosening or breaking the vacuum seal on jars or containers with threaded lids. The invention does not require any manual adjustment by the user to accommodate various sized jar lids. There are several embodiments of the invention. One embodiment is for a cabinet-mounted jar opening device. A second embodiment is for load carrying, on a much larger scale the gripper device can also be used for lifting and carry pipes or semi-round objects, e.g., with a fork lift or a crane lift. The load carrying invention can also be mounted on a robotic arm and used in all axis, which could be used in a factory, for example, to grip, lift, move, or rotate any sized semi-round parts. Another embodiment can be for a hand held jar opener, and can be used for mobile jar opening tasks. A further embodiment can be in the form of a pipe wrench, with uses including for tightening or loosening pipes or rods, such as in plumbing applications, offshore oilrigs, nuclear facilities, construction sites, and for other uses. Yet another embodiment is a bench mounted pipe vise-style device.
Prior strap wrenches are not ideally suited to open jars and grip objects of varying sizes because they generally simply include just a strap attached to one end of the tool with the length changed at the strap's other end, and adjustable by the user to accommodate different tasks. Present strap wrenches require the strap to be freed and slipped over the object to be rotated and reattached to the wrench in those situations where the wrench cannot slip over the object to be rotated. Furthermore, current strap wrench designs are not conducive to ratcheting the strap wrench effectively when working on an object for long periods of time. Current strap wrenches dictate that the user somewhat loosen the strap, rewind the wrench, and then tighten the strap again to proceed with additional wrenching.
Prior jar gripping and opening devices have elaborate jaw gripping system with teeth to grasp the lid. The drawback of using the jaws or similar methods is possible damage to the lid from the gripping teeth and a high manufacturing cost due to the intricate parts. Present designs also require the jar to be free of contaminants such as condensation, dirt, and oil. Other drawbacks for existing lid looseners are that they are often hand held, clumsy, expensive, take up valuable countertop space, and/or require the user to go through several steps to remove the jar lid.